Thanks to Bourque.com for showcasing articles one might never otherwise read, articles that provide insight into the pretzel logic of the Left. So it was that last week Linda McQuaig[1] offered the hypothesis[2] that Canadian bank executives were manipulating our political system.

While this intellectual gambit is not a reach, given her previous writings, its smooth segue from fact to fiction is a little frightening. First, let’s give her credit for investigating a throw-away line in the Raitt tape, about an encounter between Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal party’s major creditors. She grilled John McCallum, who attended the meeting, about apparent threats the bank executives directed at the Liberal leader.

The gist of the “conspiracy” was that bank CEO’s stood up at the aforementioned meeting and told Mr. Ignatieff that they wouldn’t extend further loans to the Liberal party if he plunged the country into another election.

OK. Rather than invoke shadows of the Trilateral Commission, isn’t it just a little plausible that bankers could be reluctant to lend the Libs money? Wouldn’t you be? What would be the prospects of re-payment if the already-indebted party rolls the dice and loses the prospective election (which it may as easily do)?

Further, Ms McQuaig quotes Mr. McCallum as saying that some CEOs “opposed the Liberal-NDP coalition”. Whoops! How easily the misinformation flows. Wasn’t there a third spunky guy up there on the dais? Oh right, we’re trying to forget about him. Can’t imagine why the alleged CEOs would want to agree with 70% of Canadian on the ill-fated coalition.

Blurred LaRouchian[3] visions of conspiracies notwithstanding, the tenor of Ms McQuaig’s article jives with a general anti-Ignatieff malaise spreading through the Star. This seems to reflect an increasing realization that Mr. Ignatieff is not the Great Left Hope. This piece [4]by Thomas Walkom expresses the same sentiment.

One wonders whether the usually compliant folks at the Star don’t realize that the Liberal Party is pragmatic, that it bends to the electoral winds? That said, it must still come as a shock to see as nice a fellow as Mr. Ignatieff appear to be ideologically unreliable – at least from the Torstar perspective. Oh well, there’s always the other two members of the coalition.